X-ray sources have many uses, such as for example, imaging, x-ray crystallography, electrostatic dissipation, electrostatic precipitation, and x-ray fluorescence.
Some uses can be limited due to the high cost of the x-ray source. It would be beneficial to reduce the cost of x-ray sources while maintaining their functionality.
For some applications, a narrow beam of x-rays is desired. Other applications, however, require a wide angle beam to emit the x-rays over a large area.
X-ray tubes can be fragile, but are sometimes used in rough environments, so it can be important to protect x-ray sources from damage due to bumping against other devices or from chemical corrosion. It would be beneficial to make a more robust x-ray source.
One fragile x-ray tube component is the x-ray window through which x-rays are transmitted. If a protective structure is placed in front of or surrounds the window then it can be important, especially for low energy x-ray sources, to select materials for the protective structure that have high x-ray transmissivity in order to avoid excessive x-ray attenuation.